Meet A Guinness World Records Judge

In the November issue, we told you how Guinness World Records are set! Sometimes an official judge stops by to watch over a record attempt. He or she is called an adjudicator (say: uh-joo-duh-kay-ter.) We talked to Guinness World Record’s Michael Furnari about his very cool job.

Chickadee: Can you tell us about your job?

Michael: I travel around the world, and I verify world records. All Guinness World Records titles have guidelines that need to be followed when somebody attempts a record. And I am there to make sure all of those rules are followed properly and that a record has been officially broken.

Chickadee: How many trips do you take each year?

Michael: I travel about 20 times per year, about twice a month. But we have a lot of adjudicators that are judging records almost every weekend. Records are being attempted all the time and our adjudicators are constantly travelling and trying to verify as many records as possible.

Chickadee: What’s your favourite part of your job?

Michael: My favourite part is seeing how excited people are when they get the record. These are people who have been working sometimes for their entire life to achieve this goal. When they break a record, you see the excitement and how happy they are. It’s really cool to be able to experience that.

Chickadee: Do you have a favourite record that you’ve judged?

Michael: One of the most amazing records I’ve seen is the Farthest Distance Human Cannonball, which is the farthest distance to shoot someone out of a cannon. It was done in Tampa, Florida, and he flew for 195 ft. before landing on an inflatable pad. It’s something I never thought I would see in my life!

(Xbox and Human Cannonball Dave “The Bullet” Smith break a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for Greatest Distance Travelled as a Human Cannonball for the Xbox upcoming launch of “Sea of Thieves” at Raymond James Stadium on Tuesday, March 13, 2018 in Tampa, Florida. The Xbox host of the event was Rukari Austin. (Casey Brooke Lawson/AP Images for Xbox).

Interview by Maria Birmingham.